Graybark grape

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Graybark grape

Graybark grape leaf

Graybark grape leaves

Graybark grape leaf

Graybark grape bark

Graybark grape twig pubescence

Graybark grape leaf under surface

Morphology

Trunk

Stems climbing; branches unarmed, tips not enveloped by unfolding leaves, tendrils persistent, usually branched, sometimes simple; bark reddish brown, exfoliating in long, thin strips; wood light brown, soft.

Twigs

Grayish brown, flexible, floccose; leaf scars crescent-shaped to ovate; pith brown; buds cone-shaped, .08 to .12 inch, apex obtuse to acute, scales tomentose, at least distally.

Leaves

Deciduous, alternate, simple; petiole 2.8 to 4 inches, floccose or arachnoid and hirtellous; blade cordate to broadly ovate, 2.4 to 8 inches long, 1.6 to 6 inches wide, base cordate, margins irregularly dentate, usually unlobed, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed, apex acuminate, lower surfaces grayish green, arachnoid and hirtellous with white hairs, not glaucous, upper surfaces dark green, glabrous, glabrate, or sparsely floccose with white hairs.

Flowers

Inflorescences opposite leaves on new growth, thyrses, 50-200-flowered, spreading or lax, 2.4 to 6 inches; peduncle .8 to 3.2 inches, floccose to arachnoid; pedicels .08 to .12 inch, arachnoid. Flowers dioecious; unisexual, radially symmetric; sepals 5, connate, lobes green, reduced to an obscure rim; petals 5, connate distally, white, oblong to elliptic, ca. .1 inch; staminate: stamens 5, to .12 inch; pistillate: pistil 1, ovary superior, 2-locular; style 1; stigma 1, lobed.

Fruit

September-October; berries, dark purple to black, globose, .2 to .35 inch diam., smooth, slightly glaucous, glabrous, flesh not milky; seeds 1-2, reddish brown, broadly ovoid, .16 to .2 inch, smooth.

Ecology

Habitat

Floodplain and upland forests, stream banks, wooded hillsides, thickets.

Distribution

East 2/5 of Kansas

Additional Notes